General Ike

machohaulic...... We laid my wife's uncle to rest last month in Cawood (Harlan) Kentucky. EVERY car in the opposing lane, including police, fire, school bus', municipal trucks, etc. pulled over and waited for us to pass. You just won't see that in a metropolitan area. Getting to Starbucks before school or work is a greater priority than honoring the dead for 30 seconds while they pass. Rowdy... My grandmother passed a decade ago. Also 101 1/2. Off the boat from Ireland at 16. Married a NYC cop. Lived in the Bronx until she was 94 all on her own. Built like a brick sh!t house. Never saw her sick a day in her life. Never complained of a headache, toothache or stomach ache. Could rake and bag an acre of leaves off my folk's back yard in a day well into her 90's. Just don't makem' like that anymore.

other dog.... Friendly Confines is about 5 min from me. Me and the other sports dads will go there while our kids are at practice for some frosties and wings.... better known there as Cubby Claws.

Here in Winter Park (Orlando) we got 24 inches of rain in 36 hours. Wind was bad but not as bad as other previous storms but still took out trees and left a bucket of debris. Flooding is unreal. Sanitary sewers are overwhelmed. Major sewage issue at the water treatment plants and contamination of local waterways. The chain of lakes that I live on are flooded to the point that the water line is hundreds of feet from their natural boundary in certain places. When it is all said and done however, we dodged a major bullet.

Yes fire truck chassis follow a different number system. B-75, B-85, B-95 and a handful of B-125's. The vast majority of them were gassers with 707's in them. There were a few (rare as hens teeth) B-21's B-405's B-475's and B-505's. Never seen one in person. Certainly there were some commercial B's that were built into fire apparatus as well. But the 4 designations at the top of this post were the most prevalent if I recall correctly. I have a B-85.

Yes there is, or at least used to be an incomplete airframe somewhere.

I am unfortunately reading reports that the one and only AN-225 (the largest transport aircraft in the world) was destroyed in Ukraine last week by a Russian attack. This aircraft was originally created as a way of transporting the Soviet Buran space shuttle, much in the way that a Boeing 747 was converted to do the same with our shuttles. With the fall of the Soviet Union the Buran program was scrapped and the AN-225 became Ukrainian property. In the following decades it made several record breaking flights for size and weight of cargo. It also participated in many humanitarian airlifts for natural disasters. David Wild a member of this forum (not active lately) was I believe a loadmaster on this aircraft at one point in his career. There was a discussion about the plane in the "Non Union Shop" thread a year or so ago that he commented on.

Water pump for the motor or the fire suppression pump. You can try Lady & Taylor Body Works/Pennsylvania Fire apparatus in Heidlersburg/Gettysburg PA. 717-528-4196.

I've driven all the detroits for the most part. A turbo'd 53 is one of my favorite noises in all the world.

I've got a 6V53T in my B85F. Allison automatic behind it however. Fantastic motor as a replacement for this sized rig. Pretty sure the triplex is a single countershaft transmission. Not sure it would handle the torque of the 6v53. I mean I think you'd be fine with it as a hobby truck, but pulling a hill with any sort of load I think would be a risk. Upside though is much of the issues mating a triplex to a more modern engine (ie. 237) may be mitigated by the fact that the detroit is a high revving engine and the issues with the triplex is usually making sure you don't lug it at lower RPMS. I could be wrong, just what I think I remember reading in the past and from limited experience.

My brother, father and I shared a 1975 Pontiac Catalina as a beater/"station car" (park it at the train station so your nice car or truck doesn't get torn up) in the 1990's. Car was a beast and surprisingly quick for a smogged motor (400ci). Anyway, we were doing some routine maintenance on it and my dad's Mercedes 300SD (also a beast for different reasons) one weekend. When I went to put oil in it, the oil would spill out of the fill cap in the valve cover. It was painstakingly slow to get a quart of oil to go in. Finally got fed up and pulled the valve cover only to find an old t-shirt jammed in there. After reinstalling the valve cover, filling with oil and starting the car, the reason for the t-shirt became obvious. It was there to quiet a bad valve or lifter. Didn't bother us, in fact it was kind of amusing to pull into the Chappaqua, NY train station in the mornings with it making all that clatter much to the displeasure of all the snooty commuters. We were a white collar family that never lost track of its blue collar routes. That $500 car lasted us 5 years until I did a neutral drop in it one saturday night and tore the linkage on the transmission up.

Is that R model pumper a gasser?

Well... Very robust truck. Rebuilding it will certainly cost significantly less than new or "like new". The question is, can you afford the downtime of rerailing a truck and rebuilding the motor? Dropping a new/used dump body on it is minimal downtime as you can aquire the new dump and still be working until it gets installed. However, you need to consider the lost revenue due to the downtime when pricing out the the parts and labor of the rebuild. Then compare to the cost of similar spec'd trucks that are in better shape that are on the market and what a brand new truck would cost. I think that is a good jumping off point to decide if its "worth it".

Buddy has a 2021 3.0 Duramax. I've got a 2020 Eco Diesel. His truck is smooth as silk. Loves it. Mine, I've had zero issues with. Getting mid to high twenties on average. 30+ on the highway. The only complaint I have with 25,000 miles is throttle response from a stop. Occasionally it will take 1-2 seconds from the time I step on the throttle before the truck really responds. Not turbo lag... Another buddy thinks its a throttle sensor. Done it 1/2 dozen times in 2 years. Next trip to the dealer I'll have them look at it. The Ram was priced much better than the Silverado which made my decision for me.

That is what I'm saying. This wouldn't be a Mack Fire Apparatus refurb. Had to start as a commercial chassis and either when new or at some later point was configured by a third party into fire apparatus.

Wouldn't be a refurb. B61 was a commercial chassis. B75, B85, B95 and B125 were fire chassis. If it started out life as a fire truck, it was first purchased as a chassis and sent to a third party fire apparatus manufacturer.